Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'

Subject: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: Lighter
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 12:31 PM

About 1960 Oscar Brand recorded a collection of songs for, about, and presumably by, U.S. Marines. One was called "Wake Island," and the lyrics are in the DT:

http://www.mudcat.org/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=7567

Brand's tune was "The Cyclone of Rye Cove," by the Carter Family.

Is there any evidence at all that the song existed before Brand began singing it ? Has anyone reading this post ever sung it ?

Subject: RE: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Jan 07 - 02:35 PM

Why not contact Oscar Brand? He's still based in NYC and runs a folk music radio show on WNYC. Here's a link to his website: Click here for website

He was a veteran of World War 2 and may have collected the song while editing a newsletter to the troops.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: Lighter
Date: 15 Jan 07 - 05:43 PM

Charley, I've said it before and I'll say it again: "D'oh !"

But even if he "collected" it, nothing resembling it appears elsewhere. I'm still interested to know whether the song has caught on in the nearly half-century since it went public.

Subject: The 'Wake Island' Story
From: Gene
Date: 16 Jan 07 - 02:19 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wake_Island

Subject: RE: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: GeoffLawes
Date: 02 Dec 21 - 07:28 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Wake_Island

Subject: RE: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: cnd
Date: 02 Dec 21 - 12:21 PM

Did Oscar ever get back to you, Jon?

Subject: RE: Origins: Oscar Brand's 'Wake Island'
From: Lighter
Date: 02 Dec 21 - 09:53 PM

Hi, Carter.

No.

I once believed that all the songs on his "service albums" were authentic. That's certainly the impression one gets from the liner notes.

Over the years I've concluded that many are more or less traditional, others have been rewritten, and some are Brand originals.

Since "The Cyclone of Rye Cove" is a less familiar Carter Family song, and I've found no trace of "Wake Island" before Brand recorded it,
I'm strongly inclined to believe that "Wake Island" is Brand's alone.

The lyrics show up here and there on the 'Net unchanged.

The cyclone (tornado) by the way, hit southwestern Virginia on May 2, 1929.